Digitized Documents - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network

Digitized Documents

Publications:

The London Chronicle, 1765 (PDF document,
3132 KB) Ezekiel Solomons and Gershon Levy appear in a London
Chronicle list of British merchants and traders in the city of
Montreal dated 1764 and published in 1765. This is the earliest
original document in the Canadian Jewish Congress chronological
records series. Source: CJC records, Series ZA, CJCCCNA CJC0001

Annual Reports of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies, Montreal
Beginning in 1917, the FJP annual reports, from the organization
which later became Federation CJA, provide multi-faceted
information about the Montreal Jewish community of the early 20th
century. Source: Federation CJA collection, JPLA, 1001

Jewish War Heroes, Number 3: The
Canadian Edition (PDF document, 5537 KB) In 1944
Canadian Jewish Congress published a series of three comic books
featuring true profiles of Jewish servicemen from Canada and other
Allied nations. Source: Canadian Jewish Congress Organizational
records, series FA2, CJCCCNA CJC0001

The
Joseph Family "Blue Book"
Between 1839 and 1841, members of the Joseph family of Montreal
and Quebec City circulated this lively yet cryptic handwritten
newsletter that combined family gossip and social
commentary*. Source: Wolff and Joseph family collection,
CJCCCNA, P0200, Series A

The Splendid Shilling, July 14, 1840. Dated
in Hebrew, this companion to the Blue Book appears to have been
written by another branch of the Joseph family. The paper includes
humorous observations and concludes with the footnote "Our Three
Rivers correspondent has just informed us that the Duke of Dash
arrived there yesterday and left today. Why will he travel on
Saturday?" (PDF document, 2466 KB)

The Blue Book, March 5, 1841. In a section
of this issue titled "Religious Intelligence," the editors critique
a community member for attending a ball at "Bellmont Place" on the
Jewish Sabbath: "...we are happy to say that altho' most of the
Israelites in our City were invited (...) none but one weak-minded
mortal attended (...) what cares she for the awful
Commandment ZACHOR ET YOM HA-SHABBAT L-KADSHO
"Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy?" (PDF document, 2712
KB).

Blue Book Extraordinary Supplement, January 28,
1842: "The Wedding Day." This
account describes travel arrangments, food, dress, and social
interactions in rural Quebec in the 1840s. Using Anne Joseph's
chronology in Heritage of a Patriarch one can deduce that
the bride and groom who were wed on January 4, 1842, were Theodore
Hart (a cousin to the Josephs) and Frances Michael David. (PDF
document, 560 KB)

Abraham de Sola's Sermons
Abraham de Sola was the rabbi of Montreal's Spanish and
Portuguese Congregation between 1847 and 1882. Renowned as a
rabbi, scholar and community leader, De Sola's sermons are an
illustration of life in Canada from a Victorian Jewish perspective.
Source: Abraham de Sola collection, CJCCCNA, P0048

Sermon of Thanksgiving. This sermon was preached
following the cessation of the cholera epidemic of 1850. (PDF
document, 2771 KB)

Sermon on the Occasion of a Bar Mitzvah. Rabbi de
Sola's speech to a Bar Mitzvah boy, Shearith Israel Congregation,
Montreal, on Shabbat Bereshit 5628. The Hebrew date is equivalent
to October 1867. (PDF document, 6165 KB)

Religious Instruction Sermon. Here de Sola
preaches that parents must play an active part in the religious
training of their children and makes references to forbidden fruit,
Cain and Abel, and gentile customs. Dated 5610 in Hebrew,
equivalent to 1850. (PDF document, 4382 KB)